Mr Davis said Government plans for dealing with the status of the 3.2 million EU nationals in the UK would not make them “second class” citizens but give them “effectively British citizenship rights.”

“They get the same residence rights, the same employment rights, the same health rights, the same welfare rights, the same pensions rights and so on, almost the equivalent to British citizens. The only thing they don’t get is the right to vote.”

Mr Davis said the cut-off point for when EU nationals would have had to be resident in the UK to be eligible for the scheme has yet to be decided but will fall somewhere between Article 50 being triggered last March, and Britain’s leaving date of March 2019.

The Cabinet minister said he did not expect anyone to be deported unless they had committed a crime, or it was to do with security issues.

“But it is the country as a whole that will suffer when he comes crashing to the floor. These negotiations will affect our lives for decades, but he’s only ‘pretty sure’ of getting a deal. It is simply not good enough.”